“We all float down here.”

It is the perfect combination of The Goonies and A Nightmare on Elm Street. The movie is a rollercoaster of laughs and scares balanced to create an overall fantastic film.

The film follows a group of kids dubbed as the Loser’s Club, which consists of seven kids: Bill, Richie, Eddie, Stanley, Beverly, Ben, and Mike. The first four guys are close friends and the latter half of the group are all outsiders in their own ways. Pennywise, a demonic clown who is terrorizing the fictional town they live in, frightens each of them by shapeshifting into their worse fears, forcing the Loser’s Club to unite and battle Pennywise to rid the town of him.

The novel on which the movie is based takes place in two eras: the ‘50s and the ‘80s. The book jumps back and forth, explaining the first confrontation of the Loser’s Club with Pennywise the Dancing Clown and then when they come back to the town of Derry 27 years later to face him again. The movie, on the other hand, is a straight-up adaptation of their time as kids, so the story is easier to follow and is more relatable since it is set in the ’80s. I think this was a smart move because it saves the Loser’s Club’s second confrontation with Pennywise for later, and spends more time with the Loser’s Club as kids, saving Pennywise’s backstory for another time.

One of the main reasons that It was such a success is because of the child actors who portrayed the Loser’s Club as relatable and well-thought out characters with clear motives. They’re all unique in their own ways and the audience can relate to at least one of them. Most horror movies with kids, if not all movies with kids, don’t have clear motivations and a lot of the child actors who play these characters don’t have the skill level that their older co-stars bring to the films. The child actors cast in It, however, show the character that many actors lack, their dialogue comes off naturally, and they all portray their book counterparts to the T.

There is a saying in the film industry which states that a movie is as only as good as its villain. It had no quarrels with this aphorism as Bill Skarsgård nailed the character Pennywise. Not only was he horrifying to watch, but he created such a terrible character that you end up hating him by the end of the movie. He torments the kids (especially Bill Denbrough, played by Jaden Lieberher) so much that you root for the Loser’s Club to kill him. Skarsgård had big shoes to fill, as Pennywise was last played by Tim Curry, who initially played the character and frightened the many generations of kids who watched the original It TV mini-series. Skarsgård made the character his own and rightfully has one of the best evil clown laughs in recent years.

While it’s weird to say that there are laughs in the movie considering that it is about a demon clown that eats children, there are plenty of one-liners to balance out the grotesque aspects of the film. The characters are witty and act like real 13-year-olds, which means plenty of cursing and “your mom” jokes. Since the movie is funny, there are many weird tonal shifts which make it awkward at times moving from scene-to-scene, but when a joke hits, it hits hard.  

Overall, I would say that It is one of the best horror movies of the year because it redefines a horror villain for a new generation and provides a cast of heroes that are likeable and no character is forgotten. Many horror movies today focus too much on jump-scares rather than character and just give in to the stereotype of being a quick cash-grab for studios or an attempt to revitalize a forgotten franchise like Rings and The Blair Witch Project. It delivers a unique experience of horror and comedy that will delight the most hardcore horror fans and average movie-goers alike.